The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Photo: Somerset County
Single-stream recycling is coming to the township.
Township Councilman Ted Chase (Ward 1) told members at the Nov. 12 meeting that Somerset County wants to expand its pilot program, started earlier this year, into the township next year.
The plan, he said, is to start the new pickups in June, “after extensive publicity.”
Under single-stream recycling, all recyclable materials can be placed in one bucket. The contractor that picks up the material then separates everything at a central plant.
The contractor will use a truck with a mechanical arm that can reach out, pick up the containers and dump them in the truck, he said.
That means township residents will be getting new, 96-gallon containers, Chase said.
That new, larger container may prove problematic for some residents, he said.
“We’ll have to work with the various townhouse and condominium developments, where people may not have garages to put the container in,” he said.
The containers measure 44 inches high by 29 inches wide and 31 inches deep, Greg Griffin, the Somerset County recycling supervisor, said in an email. The wheels are 10 inches in diameter, he said.
The program has been tested since March in Green Brook and South Bound Brook.
The county instituted the program in an effort to increase the poundage of recycled material, Chase said.
